1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to operation screen display devices, display methods, and recording media which stores a display program, and in particular, to an operation screen display device for displaying an operation screen which has a hierarchical structure, and a recording medium which stores a display program.
2. Description of Related Arts
In an image forming apparatus, with regards to the setting of a function, an image such as an icon corresponding to each function is displayed on an operation panel and the relevant image is selected to select the desired setting or set a predetermined condition. However, as the setting items increase with multi-functionalizing of the device, it becomes difficult to arrange all the icons corresponding to all the functions within one operation screen. A method for configuring the operation screen in a hierarchical structure has been provided for such problem. According to such method, the desired operation is carried out by switching a screen to a lower-level operation screen depending on the selection of an icon in the operation screen of an upper-level hierarchy.
If the hierarchical structure extends over multiple stages, however, a plurality of hierarchies need to be displayed back and force to search for the desired image as it is difficult to grasp the entire hierarchical structure. In such a case, techniques of dividing the display region into a plurality of regions, and assigning an icon of every hierarchy to each region in the displayable manner, where the displayed icons are in the simplified manner such that the deeper the hierarchy, the smaller the size becomes, so that a plurality of hierarchies can be simultaneously displayed (patent document 1 (Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 08-263255)).
However, in the technique disclosed in patent document 1, the display region to assign for every hierarchy needs to be ensured in advance, and it is difficult to ensure a sufficiently wide region in advance to display on a display that is not very wide. Furthermore, the visibility may be insufficient as the icon of a deep hierarchy is displayed small.
In light of the foregoing, it is an object of the present invention to display an operation screen of a lower level layer while ensuring sufficient visibility without ensuring the display region in advance.